Sunday, June 2, 2013

June 1 & 2, 2013: HOWL Festival

Date: June 1 & 2, 2013Event: HOWL FestivalCost: FREESummary: It's like they are making an art museum right before your eyes.

I had never heard of the HOWL Festival. Or maybe I had but hadn't really thought much about it. But as I was looking for something to do this weekend, this looked interesting. It is an arts festival encompassing music, dance, visual art, poetry, etc. Pretty much everything. It's probably easiest if you read about it at their website here: About HOWL.

While there was lots going on on various stages and locations in Tomkins Square Park, I most went for Art Around The Park which the festival website describes thusly: "A live action weekend-long event involving 140 artists of all ages turns an 8 foot high, 900 foot long blank "canvas" encircling the exterior of Tompkins Square Park into an explosion of color and creativity."

And let me tell you, it did NOT disappoint. AT ALL. It was amazing. Awesome. The creativity, the creation, the colors, the controlled chaos, and all the other things that don't begin with 'c'! Seriously, each artist used their canvas so differently and seeing each style, each bit of invention, some thought provoking, some very much not, all of them interesting in their own way. Loved them all. Some more than others, of course. And to be there to watch them being created -- not just to see the finished product but to *watch* them being created. It was wonderful. It really was.

And if you're in New York during HOWL, I highly recommend going on Saturday to see it all happening. And then if you've got time and if you're curious, head back on Sunday to see the finished product.

LOTS and LOTS (and lots) of pictures under the cut. :)

OVERALL

So how about just a few shots to set the stage -- give you a feel for the scale of this project. It ran several blocks along Ave A and a few more blocks along 8th St (?) towards Ave B.

THE CREATIVITY AND SYTLES

As I said, there was just this energy of creativity and every 6 or 7 feet there was another bit of something being created out of nothing. Here are just a few snap shots of what that looked like on Saturday (and a few from Sunday that are completed)

THE ARTISTS

And I loved watching the artists work. It was HOT out there and brutal. And they were out there, often interacting with people coming by to watch, sometimes just concentrating on what they were doing. But again, it was just fun to watch the creation.

(and these two taking a break, heh)

NOT JUST PAINTING

And it wasn't alllll just paintings. There were some different kinds of art-on-canvas, as well.

Tennis balls. Unfortunately this still wasn't done when I was there on Sunday so I'm not sure what it looked like.

Pasting of lots of pictures.

Performance art...can you see the woman the guy is talking to?

Snoop Dog in an 'arf' painting. lol

Advice. The advice ranged from "Listen" to "Live" to "Don't fall off a skateboard" to "Eat your oatmeal" to "Always be yourself unless you can be a unicorn."

This doesn't look like anything but a painting...except see the second picture to find out how the walkway was created...

BEFORE AND AFTER

These are some before and after shots that I thought were just so striking. The first in each of these pair was taken on Saturday, the second was taking on Sunday.

The War on ...

I saw this one on Saturday and was thinking, "What the?!?" Is still sort of thought that on Sunday, but I loved it. Bacon!

Stop the Hate and Read

These three probably showed the most dramatic change

A grid with both father and son painting each...

I saw this on Saturday and was thinking, well that's kind of lame. Then I saw it Sunday and was thinking, I love it!

This kind of think is right up my alley. Love it.

OTHER FAVS

These aren't necessarily my favorites, but they are among my favs that I haven't already posted above.